- Title
- Sustainability of a rainfed wheat production system in relation to water and nitrogen dynamics in the soil in the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
- Creator
- Phogat, Vinod; Šimůnek, Jirka; Petrie, Paul; Pitt, Tim; Filipović, Vilim
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/197664
- Identifier
- vital:18922
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813370
- Identifier
- ISSN:2071-1050 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Rainfed wheat production systems are usually characterized by low-fertility soils and frequent droughts, creating an unfavorable environment for sustainable crop production. In this study, we used a processed-based biophysical numerical model to evaluate the water balance and nitrogen (N) dynamics in soils under rainfed wheat cultivation at low (219 mm, Pygery) and medium rainfall (392 mm, Yeelanna) sites in south Australia over the two seasons. Estimated evapotranspiration components and N partitioning data were used to calibrate and validate the model and to compute wheat’s water and N use efficiency. There was a large disparity in the estimated water balance components at the two sites. Plant water uptake accounted for 40–50% of rainfall, more at the low rainfall site. In contrast, leaching losses of up to 25% of seasonal rainfall at the medium rainfall site (Yeelanna) indicate a significant amount of water evading the root zone. The model-predicted N partitioning revealed that ammonia–nitrogen (NH4–N) contributed little to plant N nutrition, and its concentration in the soil remained below 2 ppm throughout the crop season except immediately after the NH4–N-based fertilizer application. Nitrate–nitrogen (NO3–N) contributed to most N uptake during both seasons at both locations. The N losses from the soil at the medium rainfall site (3.5–20.5 kg ha
- Publisher
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
- Relation
- Sustainability (Switzerland) Vol. 15, no. 18 (2023), p.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Rights
- Copyright © 2023 by the authors
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- MD Multidisciplinary; HYDRUS; Nitrogen uptake; Nitrogen use efficiency; Rainfed; Water balance; Water productivity; Wheat
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Funder
- The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Grain Research Development Corporation (GRDC) vide Grant Number GRDC1911-004BXL for this investigation on using soil water information to make better decisions on the Eyre Peninsula.
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